While the offense was there all game, James McDonald struggled on the mound. He pitched three innings and gave up five runs on six hits and walked two. Two of the runs came on solo home runs from Mark Reynolds and J.J. Hardy. McDonald didn’t have the control he had shown in his first two outings, and the Orioles took advantage. The relievers picked their starter up with six scoreless innings. Tim Wood, Joel Hanrahan, Evan Meek, and Jason Grilli put up zeroes, and Jared Hughes pitched the final two innings and struck out three batters while putting up two zeroes of his own.
It was definitely nice to see the Pirates pick up a lot of hits again as they had really fallen off offensively of late.